We have case studies twice a week.My group consists of me and 8 other P-2s.Every 3 to 4 weeks, we rotate among instructors so we can experience their different moderating styles and such.At the same time, we change cases.The cases consist of a patient, their medication list, and their current predicament (asthma attack, liver failure, coma, etc.).We have to figure out what is going on with them (like a doctor would- who knows why we are doing it).

Anyhow, this session of case studies I have the feared Wilson (pictured above).She is crazy.If you make a statement, you had better be able to back it up with at least 3 sources and a long explanation.You can’t just say that in CHF (congestive heart failure), the heart loses its ability to pump blood.She’d ask “How does that occur?What physiology changes lead to it and how do they progress?” and “What results from it?” and “How do we treat it?”Now, those don’t sound too bad, but then she’d say something like “How do the drugs work on the chronotropic portion of heart contraction?The inotropic portion?How does this relate to cardiac electrophysiology?Does the drug digoxin impact the perfusion of the kidney?Do the effects of the drug on the kidney, in return, impact the heart?”

Jesus.So today, we couldn’t answer some of her questions about CHF, so she started into a brief, but skull-fucking crash course in CHF.And she has her degree in cardiac physiology.Damnit.

After 25 minutes of it, I felt like someone had, against my will, forcibly shoved unwanted and unnecessary information into my fragile little mind.My brain hurt like someone had pried it open and was stuffing loud systems of rap into it and my head was spinning like a Jew’s dreidel on Hanukah.I don’t think I have ever had so much information inserted forcibly into my cranium in such a short time without my consent and an enthusiastic “yes!”

Good thing our next test is going to be written solely by her.Sweet…And to think, I got a C on the first test I took this year.and that was supposed to be the easy one.

The Heff

We have a module instructor named Hefflinger, so I call him the Heff.He’s a little guy and he definitely has SMS (short man syndrome).Perhaps one of the worst cases I have ever seen.

He’s our professor for asthma and COPD.Now, COPD mainly (98% of all the cases) stems from cigarette smoking.The Heff is a huge advocate for smoking cessation by any means necessary and is an absolute expert on asthma and the complications smoking can cause with it.

A couple weeks back, he had finished lecturing my P-2 class on smoking cessation (and that it was better to use the patch and gum for life than to smoke ever again) and was on his way back to Boise when he had to stop for gas.When he got into the station, he had to pre-pay inside with cash.Coming out of the store, a young teenage girl approached him and politely asked him to buy a pack of cigarettes for her.

He told her no just as politely.She took some offense to that and he just responded with “I don’t want to see you as a patient.”

What a weird coincidence that she picked the biggest proponent of smoking cessation on planet.

AIDS!AIDS!AIDS!EVERYONE HAS AIDS!

Pardon the Team America reference.

For pharmacy school, we have to take a certain number of elective credits.Mine this semester is the HIV/AIDS class.We have already learned all about the virus itself, as well as the treatments for it and such.Today, we had a few guest speakers come in to talk about the moral implications of AIDS (I don’t remember their names, so I will use their faith):Pastor Christian, Elder Mormon, and Father Catholic.

Well, you all know my warped views on religion.I was not happy about the line-up of guest speakers.And I was right to reserve my doubts about them.

Not only did Pastor Christian, Elder Mormon, and Father Catholic fail to talk about anything of relevance to HIV and the way that their church would deal with someone with HIV being a parishioner (how to deal with the sin they committed to obtain it- injection drug use, unsafe sex, unsafe homosexual intercourse, etc.), but they only engaged in an hour long pissing contest about whose religion was better.They talked about the atrocities in Africa and how their church would help them.Never once did they say how their church was helping Sub-Saharan Africa to deal with the epidemic of HIV.Never once did they say how their church had helped.Just how they would.

I was pissed the entire lecture.I could not believe the nerve of these so-called people of God telling us how great their church was when their church had done nothing.I believe actions, not words.I believe facts that can be backed up, not stories in an old book written by people.

And the moment that capped it off was when they got to talking about the culture of folklore and superstition in Africa.The culture prevents education from taking effect, especially about the use of condoms and the link to HIV.Elder Mormon had the fucking audacity to say “These people’s folklore is causing them to come down with AIDS and we need to go in [with our missionaries] and dispel their notions surrounding superstition and replace it with a genuine love for God.”

I’ll let the gravity of that sink in for a moment before I rip it to shreds.

First of all, contaminated bodily fluids (semen, vaginal secretions, blood, and milk) gaining exposure to a mucus membrane is what causes the spread of HIV.AIDS is not spread.I repeat, you do not “catch” AIDS.You can obtain HIV from an infected person.Second of all, their rich history of beliefs and traditions is not giving them AIDS.Unprotected sex with multiple partners is.

Also, they can have whatever beliefs they want surrounding life, death, the sunrise, and the flowers.They can keep their superstitions.They just need to cap it when they ride it.

But the portion that made me want to get up and punch the holy man was the part about converting the Africans to Mormonism.SONUVABITCH.Let them keep their ways of life- their ways of life have existed for 1,000’s of years and you Mormons have sprung up in the last 200.Fuck off.Their god(s) is (are) no lower than yours.Let them worship how they want.Let them believe in what they want.Whatever happened to the tolerance than religions are supposed to preach?It’s certainly not present in the Mormon faith.

And besides, isn’t religion kinda folklore anways?

More AIDS For Us All

My teacher for this class is awesome.He doesn’t give any tests or homework- you just show up, stay awake, pay attention, and sign in every session for credit.When people fall asleep, he walks around and smacks them.When people use their laptops, he closes them.When people do homework, he takes it and rips it.He’s a fucking rebel.

He always has some brainteasers or something for us to ponder.Last week, it was this real-life problem:

“You are a WWII doctor at an American camp.You have the hospital divided into two:soldiers sick with infections from wounds and/or surgeries and soldiers with STDs.You have enough antibiotics to treat one group.Which one do you treat and why?”

I will put the answer in the comments section so as not to ruin it.Let me know if you agree or not.

One Grand

I finally hit a big milestone in eBay.I got 1,000 feedback!!!I am closing in on Alex’s little business, CA_electronics.Check out my feedback to see how it’s going now!

I had a conflict of interest on this day. We had our first module test the next morning at 9, but there was a good concert that evening. It was the band A Thorn For Every Heart from Chino Hills, California. They're a punk/emo band and I have their CD (of course). Anyhow, I sucked it up and busted out some studying before the concert. I have to say, they sound the same in concert as they do on their CD. So that was cool. The lead singer was somewhat insane...and the back-up singer was 5 times the singer. Ah well, here are some pictures from the concert and a video of it too....too bad my camera fucked up and didn't pick up sound because this is my favorite song of theirs. And oh yeah, I was standing inches from them.If you want to listen to a sample of their music, go to http://www.myspace.com/athornforeveryheart They have a few of their songs on there. And no, I am not promoting myspace. I am merely using myspace the way it was intended to be used- as a way for small bands to get their music out there.Friday, September 8thI had my test early in the morning. It was kinda rough, but maybe not as bad as I was expecting. We have these classes called modules. It's where you have the same class 8 hours a week. The teachers are different for each day, teaching their area of expertise. Right now, we are covering asthma/COPD/emphysema/allergic rhinitis/ and all the possible drugs that can be used. It's an interesting way of teaching it- taking a condition and then applying all the possible drugs that can be used to treat it. The old style of teahcing it (and the one used pretty much everywhere else) is to take a class of drugs and say what they treat. You get less biology and more boring memorization that way. This is more of applying the knowledge. But on the down side, this requires a lot of work. *Sigh*Saturday, September 9thWe had a few friends over to play games (Twister, Guesstures, cards). At 1:30 PM, pubic safety came in and broke up the party because we were too loud. Bullshit. The guy across the hall wouldn't give a damn and the person next to me would have their living room next to where we were playing games, so our noise level wouldn't have affected their sleep. Someone was just being a bitch because they weren't playing games. So everyone left after the party-poopin' pubic safety visit. Bastards. Current mood: not looking forward to lab and wearing my white coat for 3 hours first thing tomorrow morningCurrent music:

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3:53 PM

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Broken Bat Double

I really nailed this one.

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10:42 PM

XBOX 360

I finally won an XBOX 360 AND got it shipped to me.I bought PGR3 and PD0 for it, and am looking some others (like CoD2, Burnout Revenge, Halo and Halo 2, and maybe Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon).But for now, those are good enough.

Katie, Katie Zigars (referred to as Ziggy now throughout to avoid confusion), my ex-roomie Chris (Ziggy is his girlfriend), and I went camping this weekend.

Ziggy, Katie, and I left right after class on Friday afternoon (about 4:30 PM).We drove for about 2.5-3 hours, jammed in my little red truck (full of camping gear, food, wood, and fishing stuff).The first campground we tried, WoodRiver, was a bust.There weren’t very many spots there anyways and it was totally packed.

We pulled out of the campground and pushed on north to another campground.No luck there either.Anyways, after trying about 3 more campgrounds with no success, we said screw it and drove another 40 miles or so to a place called RedfishLake.The campground there is massive and there was basically a guarantee on a campsite there.The only problem was that by the time we got there, it was dark dark (as Katie eloquently put it).We put up 2 tents, started a fire, and made dinner in the dark basically.Kind of sucked, but we got it done.

Day 2- Redfish-less Lake

I didn’t even know what the campsite looked like until the next morning.Katie and I stayed in the blue and grey tent, Chris and Ziggy in the red one.And speaking of Chris, he had to work late on Friday night and didn’t make it into the campground until 3:30 AM.

That morning (Saturday morning), we made breakfast (wakey, wakey, eggs and baky).As soon as we brought out the food, these 2 yellow birds attacked our site.I was eating something and one of them flew at my face.They would take food from Chris’ mouth if he held it there for them too.

After breakfast, we tried to go fishing.We didn’t catch shit.I got a couple nibbles and the fish gummed my Powerbait.But here are some pictures of the fishing attempts.Oh, and in case you were wondering, the water in the lake was pretty cold.We did go swimming a couple times though.

We got bored with the lack of fish, so we gave stickball (using a rock as the ball) a shot.

At night, the temperature drops fast (since we were at about 8,000 feet).I wore boxers, thermals, two pairs of long socks, a sweatshirt, and a beanie to stay warm.And oh yeah, Katie and I shared two sleeping bags and two blankets.It was pretty frickin’ freezin’, Mr. Bigglesworth.

Day 3- Meet Mike

The next day, we went on about a 4 mile hike to the top of a mountain overlooking the lake.Too bad my camera’s battery had taken a big fatty poop, or else I might have gotten some good pictures (and also if my hands hadn’t been shaking from the oxygen deprivation).Here is one from the previous day on a hiking trail by the lake.

Later that day, when we went swimming in the lake, there was a little kid in a kayak and three kids on a trike in the water.The three kids got the trike stuck against the floating dock.The other kid in the kayak called out to them “Paddle backwards to get away from the dock.”

The kids on the trike, not knowing the kayak kid at all, shouted out to him “We don’t want to be your friend!”

Ouch.Kids can be so (cruelly and brutally) honest, as well as being able to cut to the chase.

The final night of camping was the most entertaining.Our neighbors, some good ole country boys from IowaStateUniversity, had been getting into their beer a little bit.And one guy, named Mike, had taken some for the team.He was also a huge pyro.They built a towering fire that consumed 12 logs at a time.Ours was maybe 3, maximum 5.

Mike came over to our campsite several times, coming back drunker and drunker each time.He was damn funny the first time.He asked if we had gone on the 18 mile bike ride we had and when we said no, he said “Why not?You’re not fucking insane like us, that’s why.”

And then he would burst out into dance and spins.His buddies came over a couple times to collect him.During his final visit to our site, Mike threw a roll of paper towels and Thermos into our fire.His friends hauled him to their site and we didn’t see him again that night.

However, before Katie and I fell asleep, we could hear them fighting.Mike apparently went down and didn’t move.They kept saying “Get up, Mike” or “Come on, Mike.”And the one guy said Mike was breathing funny….like not at all.

Day 4- Home

Anyhow, we saw Mike was alive this morning on the way out.

But on the whole, it was a fun trip.Let’s just say that personal hygiene doesn’t exist.There are no showers (unlike California campgrounds) and the toilets are pits in the ground.My hands were filthy but the 3rd day.My fingerprints were defined by black lines and my fingernails have crap caked under them still (well, let’s hope dirt, but I guess we can’t rule anything out).

I got a shower, a mirror, a shave, and a real toilet today for the first time in 3 days.It was nice to come back to civilization.

Katie and I tried a new Mexican restaurant in town tonight.It was mediocre at best, but the quantity was right.Here’s the before and after of me and my burrito (after I had eaten some chorizo as an appetizer).

Current mood:tiredCurrent music:Coal Chamber- “Giving the Devil His Due”